Young team is ready to deliver best result in CWG: Hawgood

Indian women hockey team’s chief coach Neil Hawgood is confident that his young teamGlasgow: With a well balanced unit at his disposal, Indian women hockey team’s chief coach Neil Hawgood is confident that his young team will deliver their best result at the upcoming Commonwealth Games here.

The Indian eves could not have asked for a better preparation ahead of the Glasgow Games as they routed Malaysia 6-0 in an away Test series recently to gain confidence.

“While the team is young but the kind of play they showed in the recent Malaysian Tour gives me reasons to be proud of them and confidence that we will deliver our best performance here,” Hawgood said ahead of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games to be held from July 23 to August 3.

“The girls are focused on their first match against Canada and we are working on the right team combination keeping the opponents in mind,” he said.

“The practice sessions are helping us to get acclimatised to the weather conditions. The focus today was passes and penalty corner conversions and it was a positive session as the girls looked all glued to their goal ahead,” the Australian added.

Captain of Indian women’s hockey team, Ritu Rani too expressed satisfaction with their preparations for the upcoming quadrennial event.

“The training sessions are picking up pace day by day as the tournament is approaching. The players are giving their best during practice sessions. We are currently working on our penalty corner strategy and are confident of a winning start to the tournament,” Ritu said.

“The recent success story of the Malaysian Tour has helped in lifting our confidence and we are eager to deliver similar results in the upcoming matches.”

The Indian eves are placed in Group A along side Canada, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago and South Africa.

India will open their campaign against Canada on July 24 followed by matches against New Zealand (July 27), Trinidad and Tobago (July 28) and South Africa (July 30).